Going in depth about their pick of Adele's "Rolling In the Deep" as the top tune of the year, MTV wrote, "Not only the song of the year, it's also quite possibly the song of our time, which is an odd thing to say, considering "Deep" is about as artfully anachronistic as popular music gets: a crackling, breathy thing that roils along on little more than a stubby guitar and some primal pounding, it positively roars to life the second the chorus hits, powered entirely by Adele's prodigious pipes. No Auto-Tune, no mention of partying or material excess (and not even a single Will Ferrell sample), "Deep" is a throwback in every conceivable way to a time when artists actually sang (and sang about real, genuine emotions like sadness and anger), when a single could push an album for months and months at a time and, most of all, when people still bought music. And despite all that, it was still the crossover smash to end all crossover smashes, the song that not only dominated 2011, but defined it, too. Sort of gives you hope ... or makes you realize we truly are living in the strangest of times."